Second Life

The phenomenon of online gaming and virtual Internet interaction is gaining significant influence in our worldwide culture. An article in the Wall Street Journal recently reported on the impact these virtual realities are having on our society. The article noted that there are around 30 million people involved in online gaming within virtual worlds. One such site called Second Life boasts over eight million registered users.

Second Life allows users to enter into a virtual world where they can create and control an online personality. Many of the features of Second Life mirror the characterisitics of real life. The article notes that within Second Life users can get jobs, attend concerts, own pets, pay mortgages, or any number of other activities experienced in reality. Second Life users can form long-term friendships and enjoy dating relationships with other users. In fact, as the article reports, it is common to find users getting married, divorced, and engaging in cyber sex.

What is the fascination with virtual worlds such as Second Life? Why engage in activities in a virtual world that create stress and anxiety in the real world? As the article reports, the draw of online gaming is the fulfillment people often find in a virtual world that is missing in their real worlds. A study featured in the article highlights the fact that almost half of online users said “their virtual friends were equal to or better than their real-life friends.” The wife of one gamer was quoted as saying that the world of Second Life is such an incredible draw for those who play because it “is so wonderful; it’s better than real life. Nobody gets fat, nobody gets gray.”

What Second Life is really pretending to offer is a world free from the effects of the Fall. Users can create an ideal persona and navigate and interact with other users in a place where they do not experience any of the disease, disappointment, or decay of real life. However, even the sanitized virtual world of Second Life cannot escape the inevitable influence of sin its fallen users import into the game. For example, one Second Life gamer featured in the article named Ric Hoogestraat spends many hours in the online world managing a virtual strip club, designing women’s underwear, and interacting with his virtual wife operated by a woman named Janet Spielman. Although Hoogestraat has never met Spielman in person, the time he spends with her character online has created a rift in his real marriage. Because the woman behind Hoogestraat’s virtual wife is a real person, some people, including his actual wife, feel that the line between the virtual world and the real world has been crossed; and therefore, charge him with adultery. Virtual worlds like Second Life lure players like Hoogestraat into believing there is a place where immorality can be enjoyed without consequences. However, the actual damage often occurs in the real world.

Our love for online gaming reveals to us our inherent longing for the Garden. Virtual worlds imitate the purity of life before the Fall by pretending to remove the immediate consequences of sin. However, we must remember we will not find an ideal world apart from the crucifixion. The cross guarantees for us a coming new world removed of every hint of sin. (Rom 8:18-30) In the meantime, everything we touch will continue to be affected by sin–even it is by the click of a mouse.